The WHO has confirmed that the South African strain of coronavirus is much more contagious than others. The Organization's expert Maria Van Kerkhove reported that on a briefing.
"The given strain is more contagious, just like the British one. But I have to say that with application of necessary measures, including these of social distance, the spread can be taken under control", she said.
At the same time, she marked there was no certain data about the acutal efficiency of vaccines agqainst this particular strain of Covid-19.
Earlier, we reported that a new mutation of coronavirus was detected in southern Finland; it has the traits of the British and South African strains as vita.fi reported citing scientists of Vita Laboratoriot Oy and Biotechnology Institute of the Helsinki University.
The mutations in this variant of coronavirus complicate its detection through at least one of the PCR tests recommended by the WHO. The new SARS-CoV-2 strain was detected during the research through genome sequencing that codes protein. The new Covid-19 variant was called Fin-796H.